Queens Musum

Steve McQueen finally weighs in on #OscarsSoWhite, calling it a “watershed moment”, but notes how there’s also a lack of diversity among film set crews: “It’s like Johannesburg in 1976, if you go behind the scenes … I made two British movies [Hunger and Shame] and I never met one person of color in any below-the-line situations. Not one. No black, no Asian, no one. Like, hello? What’s going on here? Very odd.” [artnet News]

Carolina A. Miranda profiles the stARTup Art Fair, the “new kid” at LA’s art fair weekend. The year-old San Francisco fair focuses on artists without representation, and will be taking over rooms in Hollywood’s Highland Gardens Hotel. [Los Angeles Time]

Thorton Dial, the self-taught artist best known for his assemblages, has died. After years working as a metal worker for the Pullman Standard boxcar factory, Dial was “discovered” by artist Lonnie Holley and then collector William Arnett in the late 1980s. He was the subject of a 2011-2012 retrospective at the High Museum of Art, and his work is owned by institutions like the MoMA, the Whitney and the Smithsonian. [Atlantic Journal-Constitution via Artforum]

Catherine Opie’s portrait project of Elizabeth Taylor’s home finally opened at the MOCA Pacific Design Center last weekend, which means more photos have been released via the ongoing media coverage, including a detail of Taylor’s cowboy boots collection and touchingly her large pile of diamond and crystal-encrusted AIDS red ribbon brooches. [Slate]

Open call alert: Queens Museum is now accepting applications for the Queens Museum-Jerome Foundation Fellowship Program for Emerging Artists. The fellowship awards three emerging NYC-based emerging artists a $20,000 grant each, as well as professional development and curatorial support. The fellowship begins this March and culminates in an exhibition at the Museum in March 2017. Deadline is Feb 1. [Queens Museum]

Mansudae, the North Korean art factory (the world’s largest!), has been quietly exporting its own brand of Socialist Realism to dictatorships the world over. They have a gallery in Beijing’s arts district, across the street from Pace! [The New York Times]

There’s concern that Istanbul contemporary art center SALT has been forced to close one of its locations due to pressure from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly conservative government. SALT director Vasif Kortun claims the closure is the result of missing building permits. Anyone in Istanbul know what’s going on? [artnet News]

We’ve talked a lot about Sarah Meyohas’ residency in 303 Gallery, where she’s been trading stocks and translating the results into paintings. Now, those paintings are done. I (Michael) think they’re pretty anticlimactic/obvious. But they’re selling and got featured on a cable news finance segment, so mission accomplished? [CNBC]